The Arctic Monkeys are fast, hard, and strong. The British band's 2007 album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, gets right down to business from the opening chords of their song "Brainstorm." Lead by drummer Matt Helders, a wall of sound comes crashing down upon the uninitiated. But this is no pure noise fest, it is pure rock at its best: sexy and raw.

After the notorious furor over the Arctic Monkeys' début album, the band took a year and a half off to retool and rethink their sound. They added a new bassist, and really honed in on what they do best: fast rock stomps. When you can hear them, their lyrics are quite smart as well. The song "Teddy Picker" finished witht the line "presuming all things are equal / who'd want to be men of the people / when there's people  like you."

The second half of the album takes on a deeper, more nuanced approach, which is best expressed in "Flourescent Adolescent." But should any doubt remain that the Arctic Monkeys' biggest goal is blasting you out of your seats, the album's final track, "505," should do a pretty good job of removing it.